Device for loading and unloading ships



Oct. 15, 1968 c. 1. WADEFELT 3,405,815

DEVICE FOR LOADING AND UNLOADING SHIPS Filed May 11, 19 66 4 SheetsSheet l INVENTOR CARL IVHR WADEFELT ATTORNEYS Oct. 15, 1968 c. I. WADEFELT 3,405,815

DEVICE FOR LOADING AND UNLOADING SHIPS Filed May 11, 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR CARL IVAR WADE FELT ATTORNEY S Oct. 15, 1968 c. l. WADEFELT 3,4 ,81

DEVICE FOR LOADING AND UNLOADING SHIPS Filed May 11, 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR CARL IVA R WADE FELT BY M /0% ATTORNEY 5 Oct. 15, 1968 c. WADEFELT 3,405,815

DEVICE FIOR LOADING AND UNLOADING SHIPS Filed May 11, 1966 4 Sheets-Sheet 4 INVENTOR CARL WAR WADEF'ELT BY W031 ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,405,815 DEVICE FOR LOADING AND UNLOADING SHIPS Carl Ivar Wadefelt, 9B Hvitfeldtsplatsen, Goteborg, Sweden Filed May 11, 1966, Ser. No. 549,283 Claims priority, application Sweden, May 19, 1965, 6,506/ 65 3 Claims. (Cl. 214-) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present device is for loading and unloading cargo on ships and has a carrier movable longitudinally of the ship over hatch-ways thereof and a boom which can extend beyond the sides of the ship or over the ship hatchways with a cable supported from the end of the boom for carrying the cargo to lower or raise the same from a dock or through the ships hatch-way and the carrier of the device.

The present invention concerns a device for loading and unloading ships and comprising motor driven winches for lifting cables and a swingable load boom.

The invention has for its object to provide a loading and unloading device of the kind set forth above which is suited for handling containers and by means of which the cargo can be moved rapidly and easily from e.g. a quay to any point of the hold directly below the hatch ways.

According to the invention there is provided a carrier which is frame shaped in horizontal projection and which is displaceable along rails or the like extending in the lengthwise direction of the ship on opposite sides of the hatch way. A preferably U-shaped load boom has the free ends of its legs pivotally connected to said carrier by means of coaxial shafts and carries at its free end spaced pulleys for two lifting cables, driving means being provided for swinging the boom from a position in which it extends beyond the side of the ship to a position in which the end thereof carrying said pulleys is disposed above the opening formed inside of the side members of the frame-shaped carrier, and vice versa.

The legs of the load boom are preferably pivotally connected to opposite frame members of the carrier, said frame members also each supporting a winch for one of the lifting cables.

The pivot shafts of the load boom is preferably disposed considerably closer to one of those frame members of the carrier which is parallel to the longitudinal direction of the ship than to the opposite frame member.

Each lifting cable may be passed between two pulleys which are disposed a distance above the respective pivoting shafts and which are each journalled on an upright projecting upwardly from the respective frame member of the carrier, the distance of said pulleys above said pivot shafts being such that when the load boom is swung and the winches are not operated the load carried by the cables will move substantially along a horizontal plane.

The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIGURE 1 shows a loading device according to the invention viewed in the longitudinal direction of the ship,

FIGURE 2 is an elevation at right angles to that of FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 3 is a view from above, and

FIGURE 4 shows a portion of a modified embodiment viewed in the same direction as in FIGURE 1.

In the drawings the reference character 1 indicates the aft frame member of the coaming surrounding a hatch way. On opposite sides of the coaming are provided 3,405,815 Patented Oct. 15, 1968 rails 2 extending in the longitudinal direction of the ship. A sheet metal frame work frame 4 is movable along said rails on wheels 3. The side members of the frame 4 are substantially rectangular in cross section and are indicated at 5, 6, 7 and 8, the side members 6 and 8 extending in the longitudinal direction of the ship and the other, preferably much longer side members 5 and 7 extend in the transverse direction. A U-shaped load boom A has the ends of its legs pivotally journalled on shafts 12 carried by bearing brackets 11 on the transverse frame members 5, 7 adjacent one end thereof. The legs of the load boom A are indicated at 13 and the interconnecting cross piece at 14. Two hydraulic double acting jacks 16 and 17 are each connected to one of the legs 13 by means of pins 15 spaced from the pivot shaft 12, the opposite ends of said jacks being pivoted to the respective frame members 5, 7 by means of two pins disposed on opposite sides of the pivot shaft 12. Only one of the latter pins are shown in the drawings and is indicated at 18 in FIGURE 3. The boom A may be swung by means of the jacks from a position in which the cross piece 14 is disposed outside of the ships side to any position above the opening of the frame 4. Adjacent the pivot shaft 12 there is provided a projecting upright 20 on each frame member 5, 7. On the upper end of each of said uprights 20 there is journalled a pulley 21 and 210, respectively, for a cable 22 one end of which is passed around and depends from a pulley 23 carried by the cross piece 14 of the boom adjacent one end thereof. The cable 22 extends from the corresponding pulley 21 (or 21a if the boom is swung towards the right according to FIG. 1) around pulleys 25 and 26 to a cable drum 28 provided on the corresponding frame member 5 or 7, respectively, and driven by an electric motor (not shown) via gearing the casing of which is indicated at 27. The pulleys 21 and 23 are preferably in the form of multifold blocks and the cable 22 is passed in several loops between the blocks. The height of the pulley 21 (21a) above the pivot shaft 12 of the boom A is then chosen such that upon swinging of the boom, when the drum 28 is not operated, the length of the cable part depending from the pulley 23 will vary in such a manner, that the load carried by the cables 22 will move substantially along a horizontal plane. The motors driving the winding drums as well as the control means for the pressure medium supply to the jacks 16, 17 may preferably be controlled from a common operating console from which can be controlled also one (or several) electric motor connected to the wheels 3 of the carrier frame 4 for moving the frame along the rails 2 in one direction or the other as required.

The arrangement described is intended primarily for the loading and unloading of cargo containers, and the cable portions depending from the pulleys 23 of the boom are then secured to suitable places of the container B (see FIG. 2). When loading cargo into the ship the boom A is swung out beyond the side of the ship and after the cable portions depending from the boom have been connected to the container B and the latter has been hoisted to the necessary height by means of the drums 28, which may be synchronized, the boom A is swung to the desired position above the opening of the frame 4 whereafter the cargo can be lowered through the hatch way situated below said opening. Due to the fact that the frame 4 is movable in the longitudinal direction of the ship the cargo can be lowered to any point of the hold which is accessible through the hatch ways. When cargo is unloaded from the ship the above procedure is reversed.

A modification of the above described apparatus is illustrated in FIGURE 4 wherein numeral 31 indicates a carriage which carries the uprights 20 and the pivot shafts 12 and operating means for the U-shaped boom A. The

carriage 31 maybe adapted to be displaceable along the frame like carrier (not shown in FIGURE 4) in transverse direction of the ship. In the embodiment of FIG- URE 4 a circulate plate 32 is secured to those end portions ofthe boom legs which are pivotally connected to the supporting structure by means of the coaxial pivoting shafts 12 Each of said .leg ends has a portion 33 projecting beyond the pivot shaft 12 and suitably loaded to form a counterweightsTo the back side of the plate 32, as seen in FIGURE 4, there is secured an internally toothed. ring gear 34 which meshes with driving gears 35, 36 01 1 the shafts of two hydraulic motors 37 and 38, respectively.

The hydraulic motors 37 and 38 replace the jacks 1 6, 17 of the embodiment-described in connection with FIG- URES.,1 +3, and the beam is swung in either direction by starting the hydraulic motors in one direction or the other. The carriage 31 makes it possible to adjust the position of. thepivot shafts 12 of the boom to the optimum posi tion for each case of use of the apparatus.

The, invention is not limited to the embodiments which have been described hereabove, and shown in the drawingsas an example only, said embodiments being susceptible of various modifications Within the scope of the appended claims.

What I claim is:

1. A loading and unloading device for ships comprising a frame shaped mobile carrier having longitudinal frame members connected by oppositely disposed frame members and capable of being moved in the longitudinal direction of the ship on each side of the hatch-ways of the ship, a U-shaped boom having a pair of legs and an interconnecting cross-piece, coaxial shafts pivotally connecting an end of said boom legs to saidoppositely disposed frame members of said mobile carrier, a plurality of pulleys rotatably mounted on the cross-piece end of said boom, a plurality of cables each extending over one of said pulleys, winches being mounted on said carrier oppositely disposed frame members and each attached to one of said cables for operating the 5iim, said coaxial shafts being spaced astdistancefromgone ofl'saidzlongitudiml fram members which.---isvsubstantial1y."lessv rthamthedistance between said shafts and-theothersof said longitudinal frame members, uprights 'mounted"on said oppositely disposed fram'e'menibe-rsf'a plurality offpulIeys eachjournalled on one of said uprights and spaced above one of said coaxial shafts and having one at said earnespassing thereover, and driving means for pivoting said boom on said coaxial shafts. t. A.

2. A loading and uhloadiiig device for'sliip's as claimed inclaim-'l-flwherein said -uprightiournalled pulleysare spaced a distance abovesa'idcoaxial shafts such that upon the swinging 'ofSaid boom when said wi'nches-are not b'eing operatedfa load carried by said cables will move substantially along-a horizontal plane?" 3. A loading-and unloading'device for ships-as claimed in claim 1 wherein each said cable is-'pas'sedthrough' several loops betwen its boom pulley and its upright pulley.

References Cited UNITED: STATES PATENTS- 2,332,962 10 1943 v Barrett 1 21477XR 2,562, 86 7/1951; Farrell '2'12 3 

